Being Human

Nature is one of the most complicated terms in English or any language. It carries the weight of projected human fears and hopes, the marks of history and political conflict, the grounds for moral legitimation or condemnation. Running throughout these discussions, tying many of them together, is an ongoing debate about what it means to be human. As Raymond William writes, "What is often being argued... in the idea of nature is the idea of man." The reverse is also true: what is often being argued in the idea of 'man' is the idea of nature. Just as we cannot speak easily of nature without referring , implicitly or explicitly, to some idea of the human, so we rearely speak of humanness without an underlying conception of nature, either as that which encompasses or excludes humans or, perhaps more often, as that which humans exclude.

Not only are ideas of humanness and of nature wrapped up with each other, but they also shape ethical systems and practices. Questions such as what counts as human, what does not, and what is natural or unnatural do not simply feed philosophical debates but help determine moral and political priorities, patterns of behaviour, and institutional structures. So what is the connection among ideas about nature, ideas about humanness and environmental ethics? These relations are culturally and historically variable, theoretically complicated, and potentially vital. In exploring them, we face central issues regarding the shape of our communities, the destruction of our natural environment, and the character of moral discourse. Rethinking our different natures can illuminate both the need for and the possibilities of transformation.

To say ethics are intimately connected to ideas about what it means to be human suggests that understandings of humans ought to be or do rest, almost always, on ideas about what human beings are: individualistic or social, rational or emotional, violent or peaceful, biologically or socially constructed, among countless other possibilities. It is worth noting that many of these ideas about human nature are really about the particular kinds of humans who count, usually the same ones who have made the definitions.

To be continued.....